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Tracy McGrady’s glory days are well behind him. He might not even play a second in this NBA final, yet, he sure still talks a world-class game.

Supremely confident, honest, and unafraid to speak his mind, it was no surprise that McGrady was surrounded by media on Friday afternoon throughout a half hour availability session.

Few were willing to leave the scrum with the two-time NBA scoring champion dropping constant gems.

McGrady said comparisons between LeBron James and Michael Jordan were off because: “(in the 1990s) there were grown men out there. There’s a lot of boys in our league right now.”

He said Tony Parker is the game’s premier point guard and broke down why he agreed to join San Antonio.

McGrady said he was shocked when Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called him out of the blue in April asking if he wanted to provide the team with some insurance in the wake of the release of Stephen Jackson.

McGrady had planned to rest after a strong season in China. He had last played in the NBA in 2011-12, with Atlanta, where he averaged just 5.3 points per game. He had been soured on the NBA experience because he didn’t get the minutes or role he expected in either Detroit or Atlanta. McGrady said he had been “lied to,” and it is believed he was talking about then-Hawks coach Larry Drew, who he thought had promised him a featured role off of the bench.

“I didn’t enjoy it because I felt like a lot was taken from me. I felt like the ability I could display, I wasn’t allowed to do that. I felt like I was lied to,” McGrady said.

“Things weren’t happening the way it was sold for me and I don’t have any respect for that. I know a lot of things have been said about me as an individual or as a player, but, when something’s told to me and doesn’t happen that way, I’m going to speak my mind. That’s just who I am and I’m never going to shy away from it. That’s why I have so much respect for Popovich, for Jeff Van Gundy, because those guys are up front and very transparent about how they handle players, how they handle my situation. It was very clear from that phone conversation, and that’s why I was okay with my role here.”

And what is that role? When asked that by a Chinese reporter, McGrady had a quick response:

“S---, I don’t think I’m going to play. I watch just like you. I just have a better seat.”

At one time, McGrady said he didn’t believe players deserved a ring unless they contributed to a championship team, but his situation has changed his thinking a bit.

“My career has been something, especially after my injury. It’s been tough man. I can’t do nothing but appreciate this opportunity. It seems like it happened for a reason, for me to be here, despite not playing.”

McGrady has a lot of pride and a high sense of self-worth. When someone said “great players go to die in China,” comparing him to Stephon Marbury and Gilbert Arenas, he was having none of that line of thinking.

“Yeah, but they don’t have the value that I have. I went over there because my fan-base is far huger, far bigger than those guys. For different reasons,” he said.

In China, McGrady rediscovered his game and said he is now feeling great, able to do whatever he could prior to his knee microfracture surgery.

“To lose that, it was tough, to be playing on a high level for that amount of years and then, all of a sudden, you can’t get back to that level, going over there, I got that back,” he said.

McGrady can feel for Dwyane Wade, who is clearly battling a knee problem of his own — though not nearly as severe, McGrady pointed out.

“I had to carry a franchise for a lot of years. I had to do a lot more than a lot of some of these guys do and it caught up for me,” he said.

“I know what he’s going through. It looks like he’s lacking confidence in some of the things he’s accustomed to doing. It’s in the back of your mind. I don’t care how great of a player you are … mentally, it’s a challenge to get back to that level you once (had).”

REPRISING RAPTORS STANCE

Tracy McGrady went there. Again.

On Friday, the 34-year-old Spurs reserve said what he has in the past — that the Raptors could have done big things, had he chose to stick around instead of fleeing to his hometown Orlando Magic.

It wasn’t anything new, McGrady and Vince Carter have been singing that tune for years, but by finally getting to the NBA Finals now, after being out of the league for a year, McGrady appears to have realized even more what could have been.

“At that time, I think Toronto probably could have competed for championships with the Lakers, that’s what I think,” McGrady said Friday.

But he was sick of being in Carter’s shadow and was eager to prove he could be the man on another team.

He nearly doubled his 15.4 points per game scoring average to 26.8 after joining Orlando, and led the NBA at 32.1 and 28.0 per game during his final two seasons there.

“Toronto, they didn’t know I was capable of that type of performance as far as scoring. I didn’t (even) know I had that in me,” he said.

McGrady said he thought he was more like LeBron James, a stat-stuffing do-everything player, but the “backing of my coaches and teammates” helped him emerge as a nightly 30+ scorer.

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Tracy McGrady’s glory days are well behind him. He might not even play a second in this NBA final, yet, he sure still talks a world-class game.

Supremely confident, honest, and unafraid to speak his mind, it was no surprise that McGrady was surrounded by media on Friday afternoon throughout a half hour availability session.

Few were willing to leave the scrum with the two-time NBA scoring champion dropping constant gems.

McGrady said comparisons between LeBron James and Michael Jordan were off because: “(in the 1990s) there were grown men out there. There’s a lot of boys in our league right now.”

He said Tony Parker is the game’s premier point guard and broke down why he agreed to join San Antonio.

McGrady said he was shocked when Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called him out of the blue in April asking if he wanted to provide the team with some insurance in the wake of the release of Stephen Jackson.

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